Last Sat. was chilly and rainy so we headed to the nearby state park to try to have a little picnic and take a walk. We got rained out on the walk, but still had fun. :) If you follow the paved sidewalk, you enter the sandy beach area through a concrete block tunnel. It's horrible -- the wind through the tunnel blows sand at you and it stings wherever it hits your bare skin! not a people-friendly design. :p However, if you walk the grassy hill that's off to the side of the tunnel, it's more like this:

Yesterday we had a big party at our house, for my 50th B-day. One of the dishes I made was oven roasted winter squash that grew in our garden. The plant looked like this: The squash was enormous -- the one I picked was 25 lbs! I peeled it and cubed it and roasted it I also made: crockpot BBQ pulled pork baby yukon gold potato salad cold cucumber yogurt soup fresh coleslaw madras curried lentils asian peanut miso noodles The party was a big success. I didn't get a good count of the people at the party, there were at least 55 people and the party went on until about 10:00 P.M.

Today was the Fall Foxfield Steeplechase Races in Charlottesville. The day started with Jack Russell Terrier races Through the course of the day they had three races over jumps one race on the flat. and my wife worked as one of the outriders (basically hall monitors on horseback) but also to watch to make sure the riders actually jumped the required jumps. She was concerned that since her horse was a retired steeplechase racer, that he might get out there and see the horses go thundering by, and decide to join in. (He was fine though)

Up till this year when I am seeing very few butterflies of any kind, Painted Ladies were abundant in my yard. Only saw one this year and she is well faded and bedraggled. A pic from last year, this is the underside of a Painted Lady.